A Mapuche poet, Elicura Chihuailaf, was awarded Tuesday in Chile with the National Literature Prize, awarded for the first time to an author from this Native American people, the most important in the country.
Elicura Chihuailaf, 68 years old, received this award for having brought
"the oral tradition and the poetic universe of its people beyond the borders of its culture"
, greeted the Minister of Culture, Consuelo Valdés.
"With virtuosity and using a very personal expression", the poet "has contributed decisively to spreading his poetic universe throughout the world, by amplifying the voice of his ancestors since contemporary times",
she added. .
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Elicura Chihuailaf had already been nominated twice for this prize, which has already been awarded to the poet Pablo Neruda (1945), the poet and Nobel Prize for literature Gabriela Mistral (1951) and the writer Francisco Coloane (1964).
His texts, written in Spanish and Mapudungun (the Mapuche language), have been translated into around ten languages.
Besides poetry, Elicura Chihuailaf is also an essayist and a recognized translator of works of Chilean literature in Mapudungun.
This recognition comes at a time when Mapuche activists have multiplied attacks and arson in the south of the country for several months to demand the return of land.
After the arrival of the Spaniards in Chile in 1541 and following conflicts with successive governments, the territory of the Mapuche was considerably reduced.
Today, they only own 5% of their former land.
The Mapuche represent 700,000 people out of the 18 million inhabitants of Chile.